Parchment and Valentine Cards

I love Rainbow Parchment! I get it from Ecstasy Crafts in a package of 10 and it goes a long way! I dug out another parchment grid for this pretty card. It's one of the 8 1/2 x 11 border grids from Ecstasy's Exclusive line.

I taped the shiny side of the rainbow parchment to the grid, turned it over, and proceeded to emboss, then prick my borders. It goes fairly fast, but I always recommend going over it a second time just to smooth out any lines that might be showing in your embossed areas.

I assembled a pre-cut 3D from (you guessed it) Ecstasy Crafts with foam pads and mounted it to my parchment piece. I added a pretty bow, and attached the parchment to a pretty lavender notecard with pastel purple brads. I finished the card off by using the waste pieces from a gold peel off sticker sheet, and added a "Thank You" for the sentiment.

Card size: 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches.

My next card was based on the tiny vinyl heart stickers I found at Wal-Mart. They are so cute with their polka-dots and stripes! My new color is brown! I love it! Can't get enough of it, it seems! You'll find these cute hearts in the Valentine section at Wal-Mart.

For this card, I used the Heart Blocks folder and embossed 2/3 of the card with the hearts. I then used the Scor-Pal and scored five lines next to the heartblocks. Then I added the tiny heart stickers to the right of the scored lines in a rambling pattern. Next I tied a red grosgrain ribbbon near the first scored line and placed a tiny brown polka-dot heart on another scored line.

I purchase a pretty Alphabet Stamp set from Inkadinkado and stamped LOVE in brown ink on a scrap of white cardstock, then I placed a tiny heart sticker inside the "O". I mounted the scrap to a velvet polkadot paper that had been cut out using a rectangle scalloped Nestabilities in the Cuttlebug. I attached that piece to a beautiful filigree paper from Deja Views called "Old World" in brown with darker shades of brown. I also put that piece through the Cuttlebug with a larger rectangle scalloped Nestabilities die.

I was going to attach that piece to the card, but it looked a little lost amongst the heartblocks embossing. The right side seemed heavier than the left. I dug around in my stash and once again pulled out a die cut heart from that Valentine set I purchased from K & Company. Who knew I'd use those diecuts so much? Um, sometimes I tend to buy things and tuck them in a box without a clue to what they will be used for!

I mounted my "LOVE" piece to a large heart diecut and attached it to the card and am quite pleased with the result!

Card size: 4 1/4 x 6 inches.

New cards...

I've been busy creating a lot of cards this week. I published 9 new paper embroidery patterns that you can find on my website "A Stitcher's Dream". I'm particularly pleased with the special pattern I've made for everyone as one of my free patterns.

(A Free Pattern for you! Right click on the pattern and click "save Image as...", then save it to your computer.)

This pattern is very important, as it's perfect for anyone who is currently facing a difficult battle with illness. You can stitch the ribbon in any color for whichever "illness", i.e, pink for Breast Cancer, red for AIDS, etc.

May God Bless the person you stitch this special pattern for! Remember, as long as they are living, there is always HOPE!

The next card was made using one of the new Parchment Crafting Grids on the market. You can purchase these grids at Ecstasy Crafts under the "Exclusives" portion of their website.

I taped a piece of Rainbow vellum, (also available on their site), down onto the grid and pricked and embossed one of the border patterns. What I love about these grids is the fact that you don't need a lot of fancy parchment tools to achieve the look of beautiful parchment cards. A simple stylus and one needle pricking tool is all you need to make the card above. Once the border was done, I then taped the piece onto another grid that has butterflies on it.

Once I finished my pricking and embossing of the butterfly, I attached it to a piece of white cardstock embossed with the Cuttlebug using the Swirls folder. I used pretty blue flower brads to attach the vellum then mounted the piece to a pink note card sized 5 1/2 x 4 1/4.

I used my Quickie glue pen and Art Glitter Institute Sea Shell glitter to add some glitz to the border and butterfly. A silver "Happy Birthday" peel off sticker was added to finish the card.

This card was just fun to make! I had to force myself to stop at a certain point, because I was getting heart crazy! I had all kinds of heart embellishments strewn all over my table and they were begging for a place on this card!

I started by using the Cuttlebug with the Swiss dots Folder on a piece of white cardstock. For some reason I have a fascination with pink, red and brown lately. I just love the look of it!

With this card, I began with the cute tiny heart ribbon that I bought at Michael's in their Valenine section. I glued a strip of the ribbon to the white cardstock, then tied a dark red ribbon underneath it. At that point, I stared at it for about ten minutes, going over in my mind what I had in my stash that would go with the ribbons.

Of course, that is how all the heart embellishments became strewn over my table. I found the pretty die cut heart from a box of Valentine diecuts by K & Company that I purchased last year from Michael's. I dug about and pulled out heart rhinestones from Martha Stewart that I wanted to use.

Then I had an "aha" moment and sprung up from my chair (I don't usually spring up, by the way) and searched a bit for the brown and pink ribbon with "love" on it. It fit perfectly! It was attached underneathed the dark red ribbon. I added the die cut heart and the red rhinestone hearts, but the corners was missing something.

Last week, Michael's had all their specialty papers on sale at 7 for $1, so of course, I bought tons! In particular, I purchased a very pretty rose velvet paper with pink polka dots on it. I used a Cuttlebug die and cut out two small corner frames and mounted them to the lower corners of the card, and too the waste from the cut-out and attached them to the upper corners. I was thinking of adding more rhinestones, but slapped my hands and told myself the card was finished. I think that was the hardest part of the card :)

Merry Christmas to all....

A special holiday greeting to one and all! May your hearts and homes be filled with love and happiness today, tomorrow and forever.

Always remember the reason for this season! The birth of Jesus! Happy Birthday!

This card is done on vellum using various sizes of dry embossing tools and a 1 needle parchment crafting pricking pen. I used gold ink to highlight the dove, punched the edges of the vellum and attached it to the card with red brads. I added a gold peel off sticker "Merry Christmas" as the final touch. The pattern is from a Parchment Craft magazine from a few years ago.